


Soul Words

by Crazy_Pairing_Person



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-05
Updated: 2015-05-06
Packaged: 2018-03-29 05:34:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3884317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazy_Pairing_Person/pseuds/Crazy_Pairing_Person
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In this three-part oneshot collection, Makoto doesn't have any words on his wrist, Haru's a mute, Nagisa is shy about approaching that blue-haired cutie, Rei is self-conscious about his glasses, Rin is rudely awoken and isn't happy about it, and Ai is terrified of spiders.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Español available: [Soul Words](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4084747) by [CraazyLaand](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CraazyLaand/pseuds/CraazyLaand)



> Because Soulmate AUs are adorable and you cannot convince me otherwise.
> 
> *Too bad I've no clue about anything in Japan's school things...

The lack of words on Makoto's wrist never bothered him much. The most it's ever upset him was when his family or friends would bring it up, and that was only because he was being forced to think about it when they did. Actually, even then he wasn't too upset about it. Meeting his soulmate wasn't as big of a deal to him as everyone around him thought it was.

It was when he met Haruka Nanase that he began to realize the lack of words didn't necessarily foretell a lonely future.

It wasn't immediate. In his first class of the day, on a chilly October morning, in sixth grade, the teacher's introduction to the week's lesson plan was interrupted when a mother walked in, holding her son's hand as she guided him to the teacher at the front of the room. The mom and teacher talked in hushed tones. Makoto suspected that the children who sat closer to the front of the room, rather than in the back like he and his friends did could make out parts of what they were saying. That didn't stop the entire class from watching them carefully, himself included.

The teacher and the lady seemed to reach some sort of agreement, and the mom kneeled down as she gave her son a small dry-erase board and a marker. She kissed him on the forehead and left promptly. The teacher smiled kindly at the new boy before turning to face the class.

"Everyone, meet the new student, Haruka Nanase. Haruka, take that empty seat in the back corner there" she said. Haruka simply nodded and went to sit at the desk she'd specified, which happened to be right next to Makoto. Makoto smiled kindly at him, and Haruka gave a small nod in reply before he turned to face the teacher.

* * *

 

When lunch time came, Makoto met Nagisa in the cafeteria like always. Rin usually bought the school lunch, so he would meet them at their table.

"Mako-chan! Did you see the new kid? He's sitting all alone!" Nagisa cried. Makoto quickly hushed him, and looked around. Sure enough, the new kid was sitting alone in the corner, not even eating anything.

"C'mon. Let's go sit with him" Makoto suggested. Nagisa cheered and they went to sit with their potential new friend.

"Hey! Can we sit with you?" Nagisa asked excitedly when they reached Haruka's table. The raven-haired boy looked up and nodded. The blond and the olive-haired boy sat.

"I'm Nagisa and this is Makoto! I call him Mako-chan. Your name's Haruka right? Can I call you Haru-chan?" Nagisa babbled. Haruka looked vaguely amused, and he picked up the board and marker and wrote on it, then showed them the message.

_Just Haru is fine._

Seeing Makoto and Nagisa's twin looks of confusion, he erased the message and wrote a new one.

_I'm mute._

"Oh!" Nagisa blurted. Haru smiled sheepishly. Makoto suddenly realized that Haru didn't have a lunch.

"Hey, do you want half of my lunch?"

Haru looked at him, his face looking more shocked than he should have been from someone offering their food. Had he been offended?

"It's just, you don't have anything, and my mom always packs extra..." Makoto explained, feeling rather nervous now. Haru seemed to think about it, then nodded. Makoto opened his lunch box, and moved a napkin over to Haru before placing half of each of his snacks on the napkin.

"I can buy you something from the vending machine" he offered. Haru shook his head and reached into his pocket and passed Makoto some coins. He wrote on his board,

_Just water is fine._

Makoto nodded in understanding and stood to go buy a bottled water. On his way to the machines, he spotted Rin.

"Hey, Rin" he called. Rin came over, carefully balancing his lunch tray.

"We're sitting over there, with the new kid, Haru" he said, motioning towards the table.

"Okay" Rin agreed, but before he could start in that direction Makoto stopped him.

"Um, he's mute, so don't offend him" Makoto warned. Rin's eyebrow raised questioningly.

"He's... Mute?" he said. Makoto nodded.

"Yeah. As in, he can't talk"

"I see" Rin said softly. He started to the table once more, making Makoto wonder what was going through his mind. He shrugged it off though, and continued to the vending machines. He got Haru's water and went back to their table.

"Here you go Haru" Makoto said, passing Haru his water. Haru nodded gratefully as he took the bottle.

"Hey, Haru. You mind telling us what your tattoo says?" Rin asked. Before Haru could even raise a questioning eyebrow at that question, Nagisa butted in.

"Yeah! We all know each others' tattoos! You should tell us about yours so we can all be friends!"

Haru considered it, then wrote on his board.

_You guys first._

Nagisa pouted, but Rin laughed and showed Haru his wrist.

"It says 'Can you kill a spider for me?' Kind of weird that that's the first thing someone will say to me, let alone my soulmate"

Haru smiled slightly and nodded in agreement, then turned his gaze on Nagisa.

"Mine's pretty generic. It says 'Can I help you?' My soulmate could be anyone from a cashier to a waiter to a student I ask for help on math homework"

Haru nodded and smirked slightly, then looked expectantly at Makoto. Makoto blushed a slight pink.

"I don't have any words on my wrist"

Haru looked taken aback for a moment. He pulled Makoto's hands towards him, examining both wrists as if he didn't believe him. When he released the boy's hands, he seemed... Happy. Elated, even. Before any of them could ask, though, Haru rolled up his sleeve and showed them what his wrist said. Makoto barely heard Nagisa's excited cheering, or Rin's muttered 'Just as I thought'. All he could focus on was what Haru's wrist said, plain as day, in  _his_ handwriting.

_Hey, do you want half of my lunch?_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For cryin' out loud! In the span of less than 24 hours I recieved 70+ kudos and 7 comments!! And the damn thing was rushed too! And I wrote it on my phone!
> 
> ...Either you guys have really low standards or I'm being too hard on myself. :/ Anyway, here's the Regisa chapter.

"Nagisa, just go talk to him!" Rin cried. Nagisa shook his head.

"No way! He's too cute! There's no way I'd get to have him as my soulmate!" he replied, though his voice was lowered because he didn't care to have anyone overhear. Rin rolled his eyes and looked helplessly at Makoto and Haru.

"Guys, help" he said, saying it in a way that told them they had no choice other than to say  _something_ to get Nagisa to get over his shyness. Shyness that only applied to a blue-haired boy in his class, named Rei Ryuugazaki.

Makoto laughed nervously.

"I think Nagisa should decide when he's ready to speak to Rei" he admitted. Haru looked across the room to examine the boy they were currently discussing, and wrote on his board.

_Was he wearing those glasses yesterday?_

Nagisa shook his head.

"They're new, I think"

Rin tossed that thought in his head for a bit.

"I'll be right back" he said, and without waiting for any response he stood and walked over to Rei.

"Hey, you're Rei, right?" Rin asked as he approached. Rei looked up and nodded slowly, his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"That's me. What do you want?"

"Are those glasses new?"

Rei was visibly taken aback.

"Um, yes, they are. I don't like them though. They make me look weird" he admitted. Rin nodded.

"That's all I needed" he said, and darted back to his friends before Rei could even open his mouth to form a question.

"What did you do?" Nagisa asked warily. Rin smiled.

"You were right. The glasses are new. He says they make him look weird though"

Nagisa frowned.

"But they look good on him!" he said, pouting. He glanced over to the boy, who had gone back to reading his book and eating his lunch.

It took less than three seconds for the blond to stand up and walk over to Rei. The blue-haired teen looked up, one eyebrow raised. Nagisa's mouth suddenly went dry, and any words he was going to say previously were flushed from his mind.

"Can I help you?" Rei asked after what felt like an eternity. Nagisa's mind flashed to the tattoo on his wrist, but disregarded it quickly. It was a simple, generic sentence. It didn't mean anything. It sure gave him the confidence to speak, though.

"I think they look great on you!"

Rei recoiled slightly, which Nagisa understood. He'd just basically came up and  _screamed_ in his face, after all.

"Y-your glasses I mean! I think they look really nice! You're probably just not used to them yet! I mean you were really cute before but the glasses look almost like you were born with them on your face or something because they look so natural and I'm sorry this is weird right?"

There was a small, silent pause where Nagisa just wanted to crawl under a rock for eternity. Or until he could legally change his name and move to Alaska.

Then Rei started to laugh, but Nagisa could tell he wasn't trying to be mean or anything. He was just amused. Nagisa visibly relaxed.

When Rei stopped laughing, he gave Nagisa a dazzling smile and said something that made his knees turn to jelly.

"I never thought my soulmate would be so adorable"

Nagisa's heart fluttered.

"Soulmate?" he repeated dumbly. Rei showed him his wrist.

_I think they look great on you!_

"You're Nagisa Hazuki, right?"

"Yeah. And you're Rei Ryuugazaki, right?"

"Right"


	3. Chapter 3

Rin had been living in his new apartment for under a  _week_ when one night, he was rudely awoken by a loud, incessant banging on his front door. One glance at the glowing red numbers on his bedside told him that it was barely two am. With an angry huff, he pulled himself out of bed, grumbling to himself as he stormed to the living room. The banging didn't stop the entire time, and despite that Rin was starting to feel half-asleep and he probably wouldn't be able to process whatever bullshit this insane person tried to tell him.

He opened the door, and glowered down at a silver-haired guy, who seemed to be around his age, though he was also very short. He raised a questioning eyebrow at the admittedly cute man at his door as he waited for him to speak.

"Can you kill a spider for me?"

Being the barely half-awake mind he was, he momentarily forgot that those were the words on his wrist as he yawned and leaned his head on the doorframe.

"Do you have a working clock, or did you really not know that it's two in the morning?"

A full three seconds passed in complete silence as both men registered what they'd just said. Rin's head snapped up, his eyes wide as he was suddenly completely energized, while the stranger and apparent soulmate at his door seemed at a loss for words. All he could do was thrust his wrist at Rin, blushing heavily. Rin didn't bother to check though. There was only one reason anyone would do that after meeting someone.

"My name's Rin. What's yours?"

"Aiichirou"

"Can I call you Ai?"

The silver-haired man nodded, retracting his wrist but not looking up.

"I'll kill your spider. But there's no way I'm getting back to sleep, so we'd better get to know each other" Rin stated. Ai finally looked up, and smiled.

"Thank you, Rin"


End file.
